Well said, Bill.

The interesting thing is that when people take the Bible as THE one   absolute and perfect authority, which is an act of faith on their part, what they are really taking as the authority is the word of various other people to that effect. They have decided to have faith in the opinions and assumptions of certain other people regarding the Bible, and that's all.

If they'd been born in a Muslim culture, then they'd no doubt have had the same faith in the word of certain other people around them, only it would have led to a different conclusion: that the Koran is the final authority on the Word of God. And if they'd been born Mormons, then it would be the Book of Mormon. Or they might look to the Pope if they are very strict Catholics. And so on.

In every case their unquestioned faith in the book or the leader proceeds directly from their previously unquestioned faith in the various people who told them to have faith in the book or the leader.

pete - You ask "where do you think i am going to go, other than the bible?" The answer to that should be fairly obvious, pete. Go within yourself. Become silent, become very attentive, and go within. Search your own heart. That's what Jesus advised. It's also what Buddha and countless other great teachers have advised. If God lives within each one of us...and I'm sure you believe that that is so...then you can definitely find God (and peace and love) by going within. Seek and you shall find. And you can also find God in other ways, and reading the great spiritual books of the various traditions is one way that can certainly help you do so, but that is not to say that any one spiritual book is the ONLY source...or that it is a perfect source. They were all written by men, after all, and men are fallible...and easily swayed by politics, prejudice, culture, and whatever else influences their thinking at the time. That's why I look on all the great spiritual books as guides...but none of them as a perfect and exclusive source of spiritual truth.